The U.S. scientific community was pleased with the recent nomination of a respected scientist to serve as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). His nomination hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee demonstrated that he has bipartisan support.

The President faces a wide range of domestic and international challenges, from protecting national and energy security, to ensuring U.S. economic competitiveness, curing diseases, bolstering agriculture and responding to natural disasters. These challenges share one thing in common: the need for scientific knowledge and technological expertise to address them successfully. It is for this reason that many of our organizations sent a letter shortly after the presidential election encouraging then-President-elect Trump to nominate an OSTP director as quickly as possible.

We therefore urge you to move rapidly to vote on the nomination of OSTP director. A swift confirmation process would allow the OSTP Director to quickly begin the vital work, with executive branch colleagues, of coordinating and determining effective ways to use science and technology to address major national challenges.

Thank you for your consideration and for your vital efforts to ensure that we have a strong scientific leader at OSTP to work across government and the research community to maintain America's global leadership and to respond to national economic and security challenges.

Sincerely,

American Anthropological Association
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Brain Coalition
American Chemical Society
American Educational Research Association
American Geophysical Union
American Geosciences Institute
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Mathematical Society
American Physiological Society
American Psychological Association
American Society for Microbiology
American Sociological Association
Aspen Brain Institute
Association for Psychological Science
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
Association of University Professors of Neurology
Computing Research Association
Consortium of Social Science Associations
Council of Graduate Schools
Council on Governmental Relations
Council on Undergraduate Research
Ecological Society of America
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Geological Society of America
Mathematical Association of America
MdDS Balance Disorder Foundation
National Association of Marine Laboratories
National Science Teachers Association
Northwest Neuroscience Outreach Group
OSA, The Optical Society
Psychology of Science in Policy
SAGE Publishing
Society for Research in Child Development
Society of Toxicology
The International Society for Optics and Photonics
The Oceanography Society
Washington State University